Suspect held on $1 million bail in Boston Common park ranger stabbings

A homeless man was held on $1 million bail Wednesday for allegedly stabbing two park rangers in Boston Common.

Police on scene at the Boston Public Garden. Photo: Nicolaus Czarnecki, Metro

Photo: Nicolaus Czarnecki, Metro

A homeless man with a history of violent attacks was held on $1 million bail during an arraignment Wednesday at Boston Municipal Court on charges he allegedly stabbed two unarmed park rangers in Boston Common in a bizarre and unprovoked attack.

Bodio Hutchinson, 34, faces attempted murder charges for attacking the men around 4:50 p.m. near the Soldiers and Sailors Monument statue in the Common.

One ranger, a 46-year-old man, suffered life-threatening injuries after being stabbed in his abdomen and slashed on his back; he was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital. The other, age 25, was rushed to New England Medical Center with five stab wounds to his back and abdomen. Both are now expected to survive.

Prosecutors said Hutchinson was brandishing a knife when the rangers approached him, and a confrontation ensued.

After the attack, Hutchinson allegedly fled the Common and entered the Boston Public Garden with responding Boston Police officers in pursuit, tossed an item into the lagoon, and turned on the officers chasing him.

Hutchinson allegedly took an aggressive posture and shouted, “Shoot me! Shoot me!” The officers instead ordered him to the ground at gunpoint and took him into custody.

Additional officers checked the lagoon where they allegedly saw Hutchinson toss the item and spotted a folding knife that was later recovered by Boston Police criminalists.

Hutchinston's defense attorney said at Wednesday's arraignment that his client suffers from paranoid schizophrenia and "struggles every day to know what’s his reality."

Hutchinson is due to back in court on Nov. 6.

A violent past

Hutchinson is appealing convictions for punching, kicking, and biting officers at the Nashua Street Jail in 2010.

He was in jail for allegedly beating and biting another man. The victim refused to testify against him, so Hutchinson was acquitted.

More recently, he was convicted of punching a woman and biting a man inside a Roxbury fast food restaurant in 2013.